The quote The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated is ascribed to the American author Mark Twain, though I believe it is a misquote. Regardless, as the social media landscape is rapidly changing, I thought I would give up a heads-up in the event that some popular apps suddenly become unusable. Who know if the reports are greatly exaggerated or just misquoted — I just want to make sure we can keep in touch no matter what.
First of all, this blog may be infrequently updated but you will always be able to find me here on my own site. I have been keeping a blog for more than twenty years and I will keep going. It’s both a great way to connect with people, but blog-writing also allows for slightly more idiosyncratic writing and personal updates.
The other places you can find me:
Patreon: this is where you can find my long reads. Posts include a series on the Everyday Wardrobe and how to customise your making so you end up with a wardrobe you will wear; a series on lace knitting; how we think about charts; the legacy of racism and colonialism in knitting; and also light-hearted posts and interview.
Twitter: this is the one that may/may not disappear depending upon the whims of wealthy individuals. I tweet about writing, knitting patterns, art, history, psychogeography, making, and dogs. Basically anything that pops into my head. I’ve found the comment section to my tweets a generally warm and friendly place where people connect and make friends.
Instagram: this is where I’ll posts photos, of course. I have a slightly uneasy relationship with IG because I’m very text-based.. But I love showing you where I live and what I make. I also share stories about my daily life when I remember.
Mastodon: this is a recent addition and one that I’m currently exploring as an alternative to Twitter. I have not made many posts (right now I am mostly posting about writing a novel) but I’m trying to build a community/find a community.
Ko-fi: this is something I set up after people wanted a one-off way to support my work without buying a pattern. I’ll be honest: I am not quite sure how it works and just like Mastodon, I am trying to figure out how it works.
I am neither on Facebook nor Tumblr (two frequently mentioned social networks). I am finding it hard enough to keep up with the aforementioned networks to add even more social media to my day! You can find my patterns on Ravelry, but I don’t spend much time in the fora.
As I’m growing older, I have seen networks come and go. I started out blogging on something called Diaryland (this is where I first met my husband!), then Blogspot and LiveJournal came and went. I vaguely remember having a profile on MySpace. I have built and rebuilt my networks and communities so many times, but there is something about the current social media landscape changing that I feel exhausting. Maybe it’s because we have been through so many changes over the last few years and I feel wrung out already.
Anyway, I do hope you’ll keep me company no matter what happens. I cannot imagine my life without the knitting community and if we have to jump through hoops (yet again) to keep our community going, so be it.
Or it may be great exaggerated. We’ll see.